La Douleur Exquise
by Pusillanimity
Summary: [AU] There's a new girl in Jason's school, but there's more to her than meets the eye. After all, she seems to have everyone twirled around her finger, including him. Fem!Percy AU where she moves to California, not Annabeth, set right after The Titan's Curse. Slight romance themes, will not be as prevalent later on.
1. Tabula Rasa

R.I.P. Life, Reimagined. This has been planned in my head for several days, and will contain some of my Life, Reimagined plans (although those plans were for waaaaay in the future).

In homage to my name (because heck yeah, I like my pen name), every chapter will either have a funky word, or I've given up on it.

A tenative list of changes to the main series that I've made for this fanfic:

Percy is a girl (duh); Percy's mom works as a marine biologist; Percy is the one who has moved to California while Annabeth stayed in New York; Jason, Leo, and Piper are one year older.

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><p><em>Tabula Rasa- Latin for Blank Slate<em>

Jason definitely felt a strong presence in his school when he returned from Winter Break. Naturally, it had to be out to get him, because life was never easy.

He went to go put his backpack up in his locker when Tyler and his gang stopped him.

There were pros and cons to going to mortal school.

Pro, he didn't have everyone fawning over him for being the son of Jupiter.

Con, he couldn't fry anyone who picked on him.

Of course, today, when he had promised to his best friend, who gave him the puppy-eyes and said please please please to meet up at his locker, was when Tyler decided to collect his "protection payment."

This worked exactly as you'd think it would. Tyler would extort the money Jason had in exchange for "protection" from Tyler breaking every part of his body.

Oh, sure, Jason had combat classes at Camp Jupiter, but it'd be breaking the rules to beat down Tyler, and it'd probably garner some unwanted attention.

So, Jason kept his head down and eyes averted whenever Tyler was nearby. Unfortunately, the brute of the boy made a beeline towards him.

"Grace! Pay up your protection fees," the bully snarled at him.

He held up his hands in a gesture of _don't kill me now_ and replied, "I don't have it today. I'm probably not going to get any money until the end of the month, Tyler."

Tyler grinned, "Make it double, then." He snapped and two other large boys came behind him. "Chop chop boys, we don't want to be late for class now do _we_," he said, stressing the last part, which Jason could obviously tell was directed towards him.

He sighed and went to open his locker when his best mortal friend at the school, Alex, slid up to him.

Alex was a peculiar fellow. He stayed out of major trouble, but he was always the joker in his classes. His dad was an African-American Lutheran man, while his mom was a white Jewish woman.

"Heeeeey, how was your 'non-denominational celebratory period' Jason," He asked.

"Same-old, same-old," he replied, "how about you?"

Alex grinned. "I had a very Merry Kwanzaakuh this year," he said.

"Well, that's great for you. What'd you get?" Jason questioned.

His friend nodded. "Oh it was sweet. I got a new- Hot girl alert. Hot girl alert."

He sighed. "Who is it now? Lexi? Anna?"

Alex smiled. "Nope," he said, popping the 'P.' "I think she's a new girl."

Jason laughed at his friend, "Well, tough luck. If she's cute and she's new, Brandon and his crew would've already been with her once she stepped one foot at the building. Besides, most girls wouldn't head towards us."

"How much would you be willing to bet on it?" Alex asked.

"What?"

"How much would you be willing to bet on it?"

"Nothing. Tyler's running his extortion scam again, and I have to get him double the money by the end of the month. Besides, you always lose bets."

"Well, that's a shame, because she's headed right towards us."

"What?"

Jason slammed his locker shut and turned around to face a girl with ink-black hair and emerald eyes.

"You've reached the wrong group. The cool kids are that-a-way," He said, pointing back from where she came.

"Dude, shut up, you're hurting my chances with her," Alex whispered, then spoke to the girl, "Hey girl, my name is Alex. It's short for Alex. I'm like an Oreo, black and white. So what do you say, you wanna take a bite off this cookie?" He said, while flexing his non-existent muscles.

She blushed and said, "No thanks, I can't take you up on that offer right now. Besides, you're what, thirteen-fourteen, how would we date, '_oh hey, hop on my bike, we can scavenge for food like pigeons_.'"

Alex laughed, "You got me there. So, is there anything the great Alex can do for you?"

She nodded, "Actually, yeah. I'm looking for Jason, he's supposed to be my guide or something like that."

Alex smiled, "I'm secretly a superhero. Jason is my superhero name, and my power is being a goody-two-shoes."

"Hey!" Jason protested.

"Well, you kind of are one. Aren't you like, one of the only guides for the school?"

"Point taken, Alex."

The girl turned toward him, "So, you're Jason?"

"Yeah, that's me," he said.

"Cool, so, since you're my guide, we've got several classes together. Granted, you're a guide, so I probably won't take Advanced Reading and Calculus whatever."

"Well, let's see what we have together," Jason said, silently adding in that he sucked with numbers and had dyslexia.

The girl handed him her schedule. He could've probably ended up a stalker if he could read any of this. Awkwardly, he handed both of theirs back to her.

She shot him a curious glance.

"I'm dyslexic. I suck with words," he explained.

She nodded and grinned at him, "Wow, so am I. Next thing you know, we're secretly long lost twins."

"Well, hand 'em here, I can read," Alex said.

"From what I'm told, this has a ton of my personal info and stuff," she mentioned.

"Yeah, well it's gain a potential stalker or stand here for twenty minutes trying to read that," he replied.

Jason nodded as if to say, _he's good_.

She looked at Alex, then to Jason, then back to Alex, studying their faces. "All right," she gave in, handing over the schedules.

"Okay, you have... What? Maybe I have dyslexia too... No, that's what it says..." He muttered to himself.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Well, you two have every single class together except your last one, which is Drama for you and Track practice for Jason."

"Every single class?" Jason asked incredulously.

"Are you deaf and dyslexic, Jason?" Alex asked in reply.

"Well, how many classes do I have with you, Alex?"

"We've both got Track practice together, obviously, and I have French and Science with both of you and Gym."

"Okay, well, what's my first few classes?"

"Your first three are French, Reading, and Math."

"Yippee. Let's go," the girl said.

"Hold on there, cowgirl, we still don't know your name," Alex said.

"You could've easily read it on the paper," she replied.

"Yeah, but I figure that a formal introduction would work well."

"Formal?" She asked.

"Oh dear," Jason muttered.

"You got it!" Alex grinned. He yelled out loud, "From the far away land of" he paused and turned to the girl.

"New York," she whispered, half terrified at all the people staring at her.

"From the far away land of New York, I present to youuuu," he said, then gestured dramatically towards the girl.

By this time, practically everyone was looking at her expectantly.

"Uh, hi, I'm Penny."

The crowd dispersed immediately after, while Alex mock cheered, "Yeah! We love you Penny! Marry us!"

"Has... Has he done that before?" Penny asked Jason.

"Too many times to count."

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><p>As Jason found out through the day, Penny was a lot like him. Not only did she have dyslexia, but she sucked at math, never sat still, and could never get an 'A' in any class that you actually had to do work in.<p>

Definitely a demigod, he thought, which explained the power. He had never seen her though, and Camp Jupiter was the only place where demigods could be safe, so could it be that she still didn't know about herself?

He resolved not to tell her, since it was a well-known fact that knowing alone increased your scent. He tried to imagine what both of them smell like to monsters. He wasn't going going to lie, being a son of Jupiter meant he was extremely powerful, and consequently had a powerful scent.

So, with that in mind, and taking in her power, they either smelled like a fresh pizza, waiting to be devoured, or a tiger, waiting for any monster foolish enough to attack.

Well, him maybe. She probably smelled nice, like, flowers.

Unbeknownst to him, Penny was having the same thoughts, although she imagined Jason as smelling like the Old Spice guy.

Unfortunately, Jason was immediately snapped back to reality by Coach Abernathy's whistle blowing in his face. "Wake up, Grace! I told you to drop and give me ten pushups!"

Jason quickly complied, while the Coach yelled, "Make it twenty!"

He could see Alex laughing at him while pointing, and out of the corner of his eyes Penny covering her mouth, failing to hide the giggles that were evident from her facial expressions.

Coach Abernathy turned towards Alex and yelled, "You too, Green!"

Alex shrugged and said, "Can't blame the Rainbow for laughing at one of his friends." He did comply with the order, though."

Gym continued as normal, though he lost track of Penny while playing basketball.

It was their last period of the day together, as Alex and Jason met up with Penny by their lockers.

"So, how was your first day at our marvelous school, dear Miss Jackson," Alex asked i his snooty voice.

"Why, Lord Skittles, it was an ever-so-wonderful day indeed. I do look forward to another tomorrow," she replied in an airy voice.

Alex replied to her in his normal voice, "First, you want to go back again, and secondly, 'Lord Skittles?'"

She shrugged, "You called yourself the Rainbow in gym class."

He laughed at her, "You'll do great here," he said, and clapped her on the back.

"Come on Jason," he said while leaving, "the Bus does not wait for anyone!"

Jason looked at Alex, "How will she get to Drama class? She doesn't know where anything is."

"Oh, it's fine," Penny piped up, "Brandon's going to show me to Drama. Go on, I'll survive for one period without you."

"Well, alright then," Jason said, before turning to Alex and catching up with him.

"So, ready to go?" Brandon asked, reaching the lockers.

"Yeah, why not," she replied, closing her locker.

"I apologize for not being able to show you around today, I was caught up in some SGA stuff," Brandon said.

"Oh, that's alright," Penny assured him, "I had a good day today."

"Really, did you now?" Brandon asked curiously.

She looked at him, "Yeah. Alex is hilarious, and Jason is really nice."

"Well, that's nice to know you didn't have a dreadful first day here," he said, "Moving can be tough."

"Tell me about it," she told him, as they walked to Drama class to finish off the day.


	2. Arbalist

**I got stuck/bored with another version of this chapter, so here's mark two.**

**NOTICE: Looking for a Beta. Partially for grammar mistakes and corrections, but mostly to get me off my lazy hind and write these chapters.**

**Additionally, they must be willing to be subject to spoilers, as I'm going to be passing some of my plot ideas through them. The search will go on for about a week, unless someone catches my eye early on enough. If I've already picked a beta, it'll say so on my profile under story descriptions.**

**So, if you're interested in becoming a Beta, shoot me a PM about why you're so much better than everyone else who wants to become the Beta. Please consider it, since grabbing a Beta out of my reader-base seems smarter to me than out of the general mass of Betas.**

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><p>Arbalist, <em>n.<em>- A crossbowman, or alternatively, an old crossbow drawn with a crank. Alternate spelling: "Arbalest"

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><p>As expected by Jason, he got some flak for being Penny's guide.<p>

Of course, by that, he meant "That girl is mine," and "You'd best not be making a move on her."

It's not like he _asked _to be her guide. Although, yes, he did enjoy her company, he hated the attention it gave him.

All of his life, he had been doted on by everyone he knew, just for his lineage. He wanted to scream at the people who treated him like a god, who babied him in fear of evoking Jupiter's wrath.

It's not like he could help being the Son of Jupiter. It's not like he could help being dropped off at Camp Jupiter when he was three, by Juno of all the Gods that could.

Before that... his mind was hazy. He knew there was someone who looked after him. He could remember some piercing blue eyes, and dark hair.

His mother, maybe? But _why, _he asked himself, _why_ would she let him be taken?

Gwen and Dakota mentioned their parents. Gwen said that her Dad was a small-time farmer, with a decent amount of land, but at the very least, he was there sometimes.

Dakota told him his mom was a bartender, who got too drunk on what she was selling to really pay attention to him, and on the rare occasions that she did, it wasn't good to say the least.

The Legion was the closest thing they had to a family, they told him. It was much better here, and Jason was lucky that he had so much more time in there.

Nevertheless, he wanted a taste of the real life. Not the fake, "All Hail the Son of Jupiter" world. He wanted to see what it felt like to be a regular person.

He'd started asking four years ago to attend school in the mortal world. Only last year, the Praetors, Thomas Young and Reyna, had finally relented.

And now, here he was. In the 8th Grade, just waiting to get beat up by a bully.

Or, he assumed, some guy who wanted to get with Penny now.

He could easily see why a large majority of the guys were head over heels for her (and, he suspected, some of the girls as well). She had a pleasant personality, a pretty face, and some other _assets_ that he didn't feel clean thinking about.

But she stuck with Jason. Every time there was group work, or pair work, or just some work that made you talk with someone, she made a beeline towards him.

It wasn't that he didn't like her, _per say_, but he certainly despised the attention she brought.

At the moment, they were talking over their Physical Science project, which was to create a projectile launcher to hit a specific target at unknown distances.

"But a gun would be so cool!" Penny argued.

Jason frowned, "It'd also probably be illegal to build."

"_Pfft_. Buzzkill," she muttered.

"Hey!" He protested, "I don't want to get arrested for bringing a gun to school!"

"Well, what about a bow?" He asked.

She laughed, "I'd end up hitting more people on accident than targets on purpose." Penny's emerald green eyes matched his, gleaming with curiosity, "Are you a good shot? Ever even shot a bow before?" She asked.

"A few times," he admitted.

"And did ya' hit what you were trying to?" She pressed him for answers.

Jason's memory flashed back to the last time he had fired an arrow. He was aiming for the hay bale that Jackson had marked, and somehow, it flew ridiculously off course, ricocheting off of a barracks, onto a course headed straight for Terminus.

Needless to say, Jason swore to himself that he would never pick up a bow again, lest he accidentally turn Terminus into an arrow-unicorn.

"Definitely not, no," he answered her.

She shrugged, "What about a catapult?"

"Catapults only work for really big targets, and when you've got something really big to throw at it," he informed her.

"Well, we're stuck at a crossbow then, unless you have any ideas," She told him.

And then, an idea struck him, one that was gnawing at his brain when he first heard of Celestial Bronze. If the myths about it were true, then this would revolutionize how they could fight.

According to what scarce information he could gather from the Lares, Celestial Bronze was a material used by the Ancient Greeks. He understood, vaguely, that the Greeks had lasted for some time before the Romans, before being conquered and assimilated into Roman culture, with all of their demigods annihilated.

There were some rumors that the Greeks never were destroyed, but that wasn't important in this train of thought. Celestial Bronze, which he was thinking about, was a material similar to Imperial Gold, in that it could kill monsters. However, unlike Imperial Gold, and unlike real bronze, it exhibited an unusual quality.

It was magnetic.

Jason knew the very basics of magnetics, which was, "same sides push, opposites attract." He also knew that the military was developing some magnet-gun-thingies.

If he could get his hands on some Celestial Bronze, then he could try to make a magnet gun, and if he could make a magnet gun, then it'd be much easier to kill monsters.

After all, it made little sense to Jason why they couldn't make bullets out of Imperial Gold, but he was told that gunpowder and the Imperial Gold didn't _exactly_ mix.

And by that, it obviously meant "blows up in a horrendous way, don't try this at home kids."

"A magnet gun," he told her.

"And here I thought you were going to stay in La-La-Land forever, and leave me to do this project all on my lonesome."

"So, are we doing the magnet gun?" He asked her hopefully.

She shrugged, "Yeah, why not? Do you know how to make one?"

He shook his head, "You?"

Penny smiled, "My mom's a marine biologist. I mean like, it has nothing to do with magnets, but its science-y, so maybe she knows something about it."

Jason nodded, "So, ask your mom if she knows how to make one, or someone who can help us with it."

She bit her lip shyly, "Actually, I was wondering if you'd stop by my house, and we can work on whatever we can there."

He thought about it in his head for a moment. _I'd have to go there eventually, since I don't have a place she can work at_, he thought, and_ I guess I can walk back to Camp Jupiter._

"Yeah, sure," he said, "Where is it?"

Penny breathed a sign of relief. "I'll write it down for you," she said.

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><p>She honestly didn't know why she invited Jason over to her house on Day 1 of the project.<p>

She honestly didn't know why he accepted the invite.

She also probably forgot to mention this to her mom, so when Jason showed up at her front door asking for Penny, she obviously got a horribly wrong idea.

"No, I don't have a moment to speak about your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," She spoke.

His face bore a look of confusion, "What? No I'm-"

Sally frowned. "And the same thing goes for Jehovah's Witness," she stated.

Jason tried to interject, "No I'm here about-"

"I'm an atheist," Sally declared, "and I have no intention, nor interest, of converting at this moment."

"No, Mrs. Jackson, I-" He began.

"How do you know my name?" She asked, "I don't think it's census-time, is it?"

"No, just- just hear me out," he stated.

"Well," Sally said, "Go for it."

"Penny said that I was supposed to come here for a project."

"Well, I feel rather silly at the moment," She said, smiling warmly, then turning to call out her daughter from inside the house.

"Penny, your..." Sally stopped, and whispered to Jason, "What's your name?" She asked.

"Jason," he replied quietly.

She continued, "Your friend Jason says he's here to work on a project with you. Do you want me to let him in?"

"Oh, crap!" Penny shouted from inside the house, "I forgot all about telling you he was coming over. Let him in, Mom."

When Jason walked in, his first impression of the house was clean. Like, so clean, just being in there made it feel messier. That feeling definitely didn't come from Penny when he was around her.

The house was a beautiful two story house, that gave a vibe of "Roman Villa" when approaching it from the outside. In the front, some rose bushes had been planted.

Meanwhile, Penny was apologizing for the door incident, "I honestly didn't expect that to happen," she said, "and it was my fault for forgetting to tell her."

Jason shrugged, "It's alright, Pen. I personally think it was a little funny," he said.

"Pen?" She asked, glancing curiously at him.

"Yeah," he said, "Pen. It fits you well."

"And when did you decide to call me that, Jason?" She queried.

"About five seconds ago, more or less," He answered her.

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say, Jay," she replied, then walked over to her mother.

"So," Jason asked, "How are we supposed to build a magnet gun?"

"Well," Sally said, "Penny mentioned to me that she was looking into how to build that, even though she forgot to mention you were coming," mock-glaring at her daughter, who rolled her eyes.

"So, what we need to do is have a series of magnets push each other along a rail," She explained, "and they'll send a magnet flying. If you have several push points, then it goes faster, but too much will actually slow it down."

"Let me get this right," Jason said, "Magnet hit each magnet, then fly away?"

Penny sighed, "Yes, Mr. Caveman, magnet hit magnet then fly away."

"Cool," he grinned. "Do we have anything for it yet, or was today just planning?"

"We've still got to draw the blueprints, Jason. Come on, we can work in my room," Penny said.

Penny's room was upstairs, towards the front of the house, where she had a window looking over her backyard.

It was definitely what he expected from her. Sort of. It looked disorganized, but it wasn't messy to the point of where it was hard to walk. She was moderately clean, but not up to the rest of the house's standards, nor to the standards expected from a legionary.

"Yeah, uh, sorry about the mess," she said sheepishly, "I would've cleaned up if I remembered you were coming."

"It's alright," Jason assured her, "I don't mind all too much."

"Okay, let's get to work," Penny ordered.

Their final design was of a two-stage gun, handheld and made out of polished wood. A trigger would fling the first magnet, starting the magnet chain, and fire out of the barrel. It's overall design would look somewhat like a musket, and to load more ammo, one would have to slide open a bolt and stick a magnet in manually.

They got all of this done in about an hour, most of which was arguing about the necessity of the bolt and trigger, which Penny argued looked cool, while Jason maintained that it was extra work. In the end though, she had her way and they kept the bolt and trigger.

Jason was about to head out the front door, when Sally stopped him. "Don't you have someone to drop you off?" She inquired.

He shook his head, "I walked here. It's not that far of a walk, I'll be fine Mrs. Jackson," he said.

"Well, where do you live? I can drop you off," she said.

"My, uh, my foster parents don't like me getting rides from other people," he quickly fibbed.

Her eyebrows raised at the words "foster parents" but she said nothing. After pausing to think about it, she said, "I can talk to them about it myself. Come on, Jason." She grabbed the boy's arm and dragged him into the garage.

"Penny," she called out behind her, "Come along, we're dropping Jason off at his house."

"Do I have to, Mom?" He heard her say from behind him.

"Yes, you have to. Hurry up, we don't have all night," she told her daughter.

Penny's footsteps could be heard as she quickly stepped down the stairs, got her shoes on, and hopped into her mom's blue sedan.

"Shotgun!" She called out gleefully.

Jason sighed, holding his hand up to his face.

He obviously couldn't have them drop him off at the Caldecott Tunnel, because for starters, it was a tunnel. So, he did the closest thing and had them drop him off a block away, and quickly stepped into a nearby apartment complex's lobby.

He waited for them to drive off, then continued waiting for a solid minute before daring to walk back to Camp Jupiter.

It was definitely an eventful day, especially since his web of lies nearly unraveled. He looked into exchanging some of his legionary salary for some cold hard cash, to rent an apartment complex while he was still at school.

After all, he said to himself, this was bound to happen again another day, and even then, having a safehouse was always a good idea.

You never know when you're going to need it.


	3. La Douleur Exquise

**Is it odd that for a fem!Percy story, most of it (so far) has been from Jason's POV?**

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><p>A month had gone by since Penny's arrival at their school. They had gotten a B+ for their project, unheard of from the C- at best students. After that, very little things of importance happened. Penny came and watched him and Alex during track practices at times, he had asked her about drama, albeit out of boredom.<p>

Then, one day, she was absolutely beaming. Jason could see the happiness and excitement radiate off of her as she went over to their lunch table.

She practically skipped all the way down, trying, but failing horridly, to keep the smile off her face.

"Okay, what?" Jason asked between mouthfuls of food.

"I got the lead role in the play!" She squealed in excitement.

"Did you?" He inquired, "What's it about?"

"Ah-ah-ah," Penny said, wagging her finger, "You'll have to watch it to find out."

"Fine. Well, is there a male lead?" He questioned, and when she nodded, he pressed further, "Who is it?"

Alex gave a sly chuckle, "Oooh" he taunted jokingly, "Jason's got some competition," sing-songing the last part.

Penny punched him in the shoulder, "Oh, shut up will you," she said in a mock-insulting tone. She then turned to Jason, "It's Brandon. He's _so_ cute, I could eat him up."

"Doesn't he have a girlfriend though?" Jason pointed out, "Like, Emily or something like that."

"He and Emily broke up before Penny even moved here," Alex spoke, "you're behind the times Jason."

"Besides," She said, "It's not like he'll actually go out with me. It's all just daydreams, Jason."

The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch. "Alright guys, time to learn about the absolutely wonderful science of rocks. Hooray," Alex said sarcastically.

Time flew by, and at the end of the month, he and Penny were walking to her house for some forced socialization, as she had put it. Her mother was meeting with some English teacher and they were going to have dinner over at some fancy restaurant in the evening. Penny had asked for him to come over, since she figured she had nothing to do on her own.

They were walking down the sidewalk a few blocks from her house, when he saw Tyler come into view.

"You got my money, runt?" The bully roughly interrogated.

Which, _of course_, Jason had completely forgotten about.

Tyler grabbed his shirt and heaved him up, "You better have the money soon, kid! You've got until-" he growled, before getting cut off by a well placed kick to the back of the leg from Penny.

"Get off of him," she said defiantly.

His two henchmen, who were until now standing menacingly behind him, sprung into action and grabbed both of her arms, restraining her. Of course, that didn't take out her legs, and she managed to kick one in the land down under, making him lose the grip on the girl.

"Screw chivalry," the remaining one said, and threw his fist into her face. She crumpled to the floor, possibly out of pain, or possibly unconscious.

He went to help his other friend up, who was still groaning on the floor, when a voice called out to them.

"Back off, Tyler," it said. Jason knew that voice, but by this time, Tyler had hit begun hitting him on the head. Penny was still on the ground, so it couldn't be her. Alex didn't have the gall to take on Tyler and his gang.

His vision was hazy, and Jason dropped to the ground. At this point, he faintly recalled that he probably could have used his electricity powers on these guys, but when more mortals came into play, he figured it would've been an issue.

He could vaguely make out fists flying, a one on three fight as far as he could tell. Whoever it was either had martial arts training, pure luck, or one other possible thing.

A demigod heritage.

It would definitely account for the large powers he felt from earlier this year. Mars or Bellona, probably.

One crumpled to the ground. It was the guy who got hit in his _private_ area, hit there a second time.

His unknown savior was losing ground though. The fight was definitely taking its toll, as he could no longer see their feet in his view from the ground.

Jason had to help. He had to stop hiding. He refused to bow down any longer. He staggered to his feet, blood rushing. He saw, who he could finally recognize, Brandon, sweat beading down his forehead as he fought off his two attackers.

He knew he had to pull one of them off of him. He could try Penny's technique of kicking the back of the leg, though it would bring him uncomfortably close to both assailants. So he yelled, as loud as he could "Come get me!"

Brandon looked towards him, distracted, was immediately kicked to the ground. Momentarily dispatched of, Tyler and his remaining henchman advanced towards Jason.

Hand-to-hand combat was definitely not one of his specialties, but he remembered some of his instructors, drilling into his mind that he was either a human battering ram or an agile fox.

Jason opted for a combination of both, aligning his feet in a combat position that would let him throw his weight into his attacks and still give him mobility.

Punch, punch, and the henchman was down. Infuriated, Tyler charged straight towards Jason.

He promptly used his body as a lever, flipping Tyler over him and launching him into the pavement, out cold.

The bully landed on the ground, face down.

Jason felt a spark of vengeance come upon him. He could kick him while he was down, score revenge for the half-year of torment he suffered at the hands of the boy.

Then, he remembered Penny and Brandon. He couldn't exactly leave them to dry.

So, he turned around and picked Penny up, bridal style, intent on heading to her house.

"Hold up, where did you learn to fight like that?" Brandon asked, catching up with them.

"Summer Camp," he immediately responded.

"Alright, well fine. Where are you taking her?" He queried.

"Her home," Jason answered.

Brandon held up his hand in a "stop" gesture, "How do I know you're not some creepy kidnapper?

He shrugged, "Come along, then. You can meet her mom."

They walked a few blocks to her house in silence, with occasional winces as they stepped on an injured body part or rubbed a particular bruise.

Mrs. Jackson showed up after the third knock, and gave a gasp of shock and surprise at her daughter's crumpled body and the two battered boys at her door.

"What in the world did you boys get into?" She asked furiously, after setting Penny down in her bed.

Brandon looked expectantly at Jason, also interested in finding out Tyler's purpose.

"Hey," he said weakly, "You should see the other guys."

Mrs. Jackson's coddling brought Tyler and Jason back from the brink of collapse. After quickly checking them to see if they had any significant injuries, she started baking some cookies for them.

Brandon attempted to excuse himself from it, but with one death glare from Sally, he immediately sat down.

"Why are the cookies blue again?" Jason asked between mouthfuls.

Sally shrugged, "It's something we've done for a while now."

Once the cookies were wolfed down by the two boys, Mrs. Jackson shoo'ed them out of the house.

As time passed by after the incident, Brandon occasionally joined their lunch group, and more often than not, could be found chatting with Penny, slightly to Jason's dismay, although he wouldn't mention it out loud.

It seemed that every time he went to talk to her, Brandon was already there, and Penny always seemed happy around him.

And then, things changed again.

It was a regular day, except for when announcements went on. Most of them were of little importance to him, since he wasn't on any of the athletic teams other than track, and frankly didn't care, but there was one that stood out.

"And, don't forget that the Valentine's Day dance is coming up! Tickets will be five dollars per person, and refreshments will be provided. Your ride must be here to pick you up at 8:00 when the dance ends..."

He supposed that he could ask Penny to the dance. After all, he reasoned, they could go as good friends.

_And then leave as something more_, his mind silently added.

She was always on his mind. It was rather confusing, since the rational part of his brain said that they were only friends, but the subconscious internal part of his brain always said, "_Penny! Penny! Penny!_"

Jason's mind was always flying, thanks to his ADHD. One moment, he was paying attention in class, the next, he was daydreaming about frolicking outside. Then, when Penny came, she dominated his mind. He felt like a lovesick puppy, wanting her undivided attention. "_Ooh look a butterfly_," his mind would say, then continue, "_Penny is so cute._"

And why wouldn't he have a crush on her? She was pretty, nice, and held a kind of fire in her eyes that said, "Mess with me and you'll regret it."

Penny, of course, always denied it, mentioning that she had very few friends at her past schools which he certainly didn't believe.

So, most of his day was spent trying to steel himself to ask her to the dance.

He wimped out in English, he couldn't ask in front of Alex during lunch, which led to him waiting the entire day to ask.

It was at the end of Gym, their last period of the day together, when he steeled his nerves and went to ask.

From what he'd heard from rumors, she had turned down a record 12 guys for the dance so far. Was she waiting for him to ask? _She was, wasn't she_, he told himself. _She was waiting for Jason to ask, and she didn't want to say yes to anyone else._

Then, the moment came. The bell rang, and everyone was filing out of Gym. He told Alex to go on without him because his shoe was "untied" while Penny was lagging behind, talking to some girls whose names seemed to escape from his mind at the time.

She left that group to go talk with him.

_He could give up and just use polite conversation_.

Five steps later, and she was right next to him as he finished "tying" his shoe.

_Almost time._

His heart beat uncontrollably as she held her hand out to help him up.

He grabbed it, got up, took a deep breath, and asked, "Hey, Pen?"

_Last chance._

"Yeah?" She asked back.

"Do you want to go to the dance with me?" Jason asked.

_No turning back now._

In his head, he was slowly panicking as she stayed silent for a time, possibly out of shock, possibly to think about it, possibly thinking about how to turn him down.

"I'm sorry Jason, but no," she spoke softly.

He felt empty inside, like someone had torn his insides out of him, and displayed them for the world's viewing pleasure.

"It's not that I don't like you or anything, but I just don't like dances. Besides, Brandon already asked, and I told him no. He then proceeded to ask me to a movie instead," Penny attempted to explain.

He held up his hands in a sort of "you've got the wrong idea" motion, "I meant as friends, Pen," he quickly explained.

_Liar._

Jason tried to decipher her facial expression. Was it relief? Sadness? Regret? He only had a few seconds to think on it before she continued speaking.

"Oh, alright," she said in a barely audible voice, "I hope this doesn't make things awkward between us," she said.

The silence proved to be contrary, as they walked down the hall. When they reached their normal diverging point, he asked her one final question.

"Did you tell him yes?" He asked.

She quietly answered, "Yeah. See you later, Jason." She turned and walked off to her next class, leaving him there, alone with his thoughts for the next few minutes.

* * *

><p>La Douleur Exquise- <em>n.<em> The pain of wanting the affection of someone you know you can never have.


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